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Bolton Calls Obama’s Benghazi Response ‘Limp-Wristed’

Mario Tama/Getty ImagesJohn Bolton on September 26, 2012 in New York City.

John Bolton, the former ambassador to the United Nations most famous for saying the 38-floor U.N. headquarters could be 10 floors smaller “and it wouldn’t make a bit of difference,” shared his thoughts today on the recent unrest in the Middle East and North Africa.

“The U.S. is viewed under Obama as weak, as Senator McCain said, as declining in influence dramatically in the Middle East, pulling out of Iraq, intending to pull out of Afghanistan, having a limp-wristed reaction to the assassination of four American diplomats,” he said on Fox News.
Let’s note the juvenile, homophobic slur. And that it’s a favorite expression of Mr. Bolton’s. In 2007, he said the Bush administration should “stand up and defend itself. No reason to act limp-wristed.” Finally, let’s look at the “substance” of his criticism, which carefully follows Romney campaign talking points: The president is weak; he abandons American allies; he apologizes for the United States; he’s somehow responsible for the fact that the popular uprisings in Islamic Arab nations are producing Islamic Arab governments rather than American-style democracies.

Since the attacks in Benghazi, Libya, Republican politicians and right-wing commentators have intensified these complaints. But what exactly do they expect the president to do?

American officials said at the outset that the assailants in Benghazi seemed well trained, indicating some level of advance planning. Within 48 hours of Ambassador Stevens’ death, the Obama administration launched an investigation into whether terrorists had launched the attack. And President Obama said that the United States would bring the killers to justice.

Everyone is frustrated by how long it takes to respond to an attack. (It took nearly 10 years and a change of presidents to get Osama bin Laden.) But consider this: the security situation in Benghazi is so bad right now that even the F.B.I. is reluctant to send people there to investigate.

It’s ridiculous to blame Mr. Obama for the protests, or for the killings. That would be as ridiculous as blaming President George W. Bush for the 9/11 attacks, and Mr. Bush, at least, had warnings from his intelligence agencies.

Where’s the evidence that “the U.S. is viewed under Obama as weak”? Mr. Obama authorized military strikes in Libya. He has sent drones and SEAL teams into other countries to assassinate suspected terrorists, including some American citizens. The problem with the president’s foreign policy is not that it’s weak, but that it’s too cavalier—a continuation, in many ways, of George W. Bush’s excesses.

Mr. Bolton criticized Mr. Obama for pulling out of Iraq – a process that he finished, but which Mr. Bush started, while Mr. Bolton was working for him. Does he think American men and women should still be dying in Iraq? And he criticized Mr. Obama for intending to pull out of Afghanistan. Yet Mitt Romney, for whom Mr. Bolton works as an adviser, also supports a withdrawal from Afghanistan. So what does Mr. Bolton make of Mr. Romney’s wrist?

This blog post has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: September 28, 2012

This blog post originally stated that the Obama administration stated right away that terrorists had attacked the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi. Actually, it launched an investigation into the attack within 48 hours, but did not definitively label the attacks terrorism until a later date. Investigations into what exactly happened are ongoing. Media Matters has a timeline.